NHL All-Star Game 2018: Time, TV schedule for Sunday

Here’s how to watch the big event in Tampa.

Jan 28, 2018, 2:00 PM UTC

Photo by Brian Babineau/NHLI via Getty Images

The biggest names in the hockey world will take the ice together for the 2018 NHL All-Star Game on Sunday afternoon. The action at Amalie Arena in Tampa begins at 3:30 p.m. ET and will be broadcast live on NBC in the United States.

Sidney Crosby, Connor McDavid, Alex Ovechkin, and Erik Karlsson are some of the top players who will be on hand for the event, which will follow the same 3-on-3 tournament format used the previous two years.

The players have been divided into four teams of 11 players each based on their divisions. Each team has a captain voted in by the fans: McDavid (Pacific), Ovechkin (Metropolitan), Steven Stamkos (Atlantic), and P.K. Subban (Central).

The other remaining players were chosen by the league office. Anyone who declines to participate in the game will receive an automatic one-game suspension. The Kings already announced that goaltender Jonathan Quick would skip the game due to a nagging injury, and it seems like they’re content to have him miss the team’s game next Tuesday against the Stars.

You can check out the full All-Star rosters here.

The four teams will play in a single-elimination tournament with each game consisting of two 10-minute halves of 3-on-3 hockey. They’ll go directly to a shootout if the teams are tied after 20 minutes.

The 63rd NHL All-Star Game is being held after the league was unable to reach an agreement to send players to the 2018 Winter Olympics. The league usually puts the event on hold in order to participate in the Olympics, but last year it made the well-publicized decision to pull out of the tournament in Pyeongchang. Hopefully a fun afternoon helps make up for missing out on that.